[[I put it in story mode so that it's clearer to understand.]]
I woke up this morning, around 3:20 AM. Groggy and bleary-eyed, I sat up and looked toward the form of my sister, who was standing in the doorway, made a silhouette by the hall light. "Guys, did you see the branch?"
Immediately, my mind was filled with even more confusion. "Branch?" I grumbled, not really caring, just wanting to go back to sleep. She beckoned me out, and I obediently followed, accompanied by my younger sister. I noticed it was very, very dark outside, but I figured that was normal for 3'o clock in the morning.
I stumbled up the stairs to the laundry-room window, and was unphased by the lashing rain and howling wind outside. I was like, okay, it's a storm. Whatever.
But then I saw the bucket of water near my foot, catching the drips from the roof. We have a pretty strong roof, which usually holds up! But it's gotta be some intense rain if it's burst through like that.
I walked over to the back door and switched on the light.
Yeah, it was a storm. But illuminated by the weak light of the back porch, I could see a thick, long branch in the mud, right next to the huge tree adjacent to our house. I stared for a moment, blinking to clear my eyes of both the sleepiness and the rain pouring down the window.
Later, I was lying there in bed, watching the blinding flashes. Once I looked out my window and found I couldn't see anything but the flashes in a dark, swirling sky. I soon fell asleep as the storm died away.
Later this morning, around 7:00 AM, I got up again, this time fully awake. I sat in the living room with my mom and older sister, and we talked for a while, but then my dad came in, having just ended a conversation with someone outside.
"Hey, you want to hear something really interesting?" he asked.
It turns out that the storm last night was thought to be a mini-tornado, which had swept THROUGH our street, hit trees on BOTH sides of our house, but didn't hit the house itself, or our cars, or our powerlines...it just hit the trees. And the funny thing was that most of the trees it hit were half-dead!
All over the town, it had only hit trees and made very, very minor damage. No one was hurt, no one's cars were hurt, every house was untouched!
It really goes to show that there's someone up there who cares. I wouldn't call this miracle "chance" in any way. I really think God's hand was protecting us the whole time! He was really very merciful early this morning, and I think this was a really great wake-up call for my whole town. He really is awesome!